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Post by Admin on Apr 24, 2019 18:40:06 GMT
A close friend of Julian Assange claims the WikiLeaks founder’s arrest has been framed as an issue of hacking in an attempt to suppress public support. He argues Assange is no hacker, but rather a journalist protecting his source.  UK journalist Vaughan Smith gave Assange refuge in 2010, first at the Frontline Club and then at his country house in Norfolk, England. He told George Galloway on RT’s Sputnik program that perceptions of a ‘hacker’ depend on what has been alleged to have been hacked. Vaughan, who provided the Australian journalist sanctuary after he was released on bail following accusations of sexual assault and rape in Sweden, insists the accusations that Assange hacked into a US Defense Department computer are false. He argues that Assange’s source, Chelsea Manning, already knew how to “crack into military computers,” and the 47-year-old WikiLeaks founder merely showed her how to do it “securely,” without being traced. |
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Post by Admin on May 1, 2019 17:54:17 GMT
Julian Assange has been sentenced to 50 weeks in prison by a British judge.  The controversial founder of WikiLeaks was arrested in April after being pushed out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he had been living since 2012, avoiding an international arrest warrant. Judge Deborah Taylor said Assange's time in the embassy had cost British taxpayers the equivalent of $21 million, and that he had sought asylum in a "deliberate attempt to delay justice," according to Reuters. Supporters of the 47-year-old, who see him as a light shining truth on government abuses of power, shouted "Free Julian Assange" as the van that transported him left Southward Crown Court. |
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Post by Admin on May 13, 2019 17:38:46 GMT
Swedish prosecutors have reopened an investigation into a rape allegation made against Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange in 2010. The inquiry has been revived at the request of the alleged victim's lawyer. Assange, who denies the accusation, has avoided extradition to Sweden for seven years after seeking refuge at the Ecuadorean embassy in London in 2012.  The 47-year-old was evicted last month and sentenced to 50 weeks in jail for breaching his bail conditions. He is currently being held at Belmarsh prison in London. |
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Post by Admin on May 30, 2019 18:25:54 GMT
A lawyer for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told a U.K. court Thursday that he was too ill to appear via video link at an extradition hearing about possible transfer to the United States.  Lawyer Gareth Peirce told Westminster Magistrates' Court in London that Assange was "not very well." The United States is pursuing a range of criminal charges against Assange, including a violation of the Espionage Act.  WikiLeaks said in a statement that it has "grave concerns" about the state of Assange's health. "Mr Assange's health had already significantly deteriorated after seven years inside the Ecuadorian embassy, under conditions that are incompatible with basic human rights," the group said. |
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Post by Admin on Jun 2, 2019 17:53:50 GMT
The Justice Department has decided not to charge Julian Assange for his role in exposing some of the CIA’s most secret spying tools, according to a U.S. official and two other people familiar with the case.
It’s a move that has surprised national security experts and some former officials, given prosecutors’ recent decision to aggressively go after the WikiLeaks founder on more controversial Espionage Act charges that some legal experts said would not hold up in court. The decision also means that Assange will not face punishment for publishing one of the CIA’s most potent arsenals of digital code used to hack devices, dubbed Vault 7. The leak — one of the most devastating in CIA history — not only essentially rendered those tools useless for the CIA, it gave foreign spies and rogue hackers access to them.
First, the government is facing a ticking clock in its efforts to extradite Assange to the United States from the United Kingdom, where he is being held. Extradition laws require the U.S. to bring any additional charges against Assange within 60 days of the first indictment, which prosecutors filed in March, accusing Assange of helping former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning hack into military computers.
Second, prosecutors were worried about the sensitivity of the Vault 7 materials, according to an official familiar with the deliberations over whether to charge Assange. Broaching such a classified subject in court risks exposing even more CIA secrets, legal experts said. The CIA has never officially confirmed the authenticity of the leaked documents, even though analysts widely believe them to be authentic.
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